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Friday, 29 March 2013

1000 point tournament: Practice game 1

I tested out my two lists for the
tournament against two totally difference armies. My first game is the
wraithlord list vs imperial guard and the second game is wave serpent list
against blood angels. Both games are on the same 4 x 4 table with just a few
bits of terrain to make it a fair test, as i can't grantee what the
tables will look like. This is the first game of the two.

And my opponents list was a very
infantry heavy army which didn’t combine squads.

Company command squad

Plasma gun, 2 x grenade launcher,
bolt gun

Chimera

Multi laser, heavy bolter

Platoon command squad

Bolt gun

Infantry squad

Plasma gun

Infantry squad

Plasma gun

Heavy weapon squad

2 x lascannon, autocannon

Veterans

3 x sniper rifle, heavy bolter,
Harker

Platoon command squad

Boltgun

Infantry platoon

Lascannon

Infantry platoon

Lascannon

5 Storm troopers

2 x melta gun

Leman russ Punisher

Heavy bolter

The Mission

The first game was the emperors
will mission with dawn of war deployment. To make this a straight forward game
we ignored warlord traits, night fighting and stealing the initiative. While
these are part of the game they are too unreliable to bet on, so this was meant
to test my army on what most counts (theoretically).

He won the roll to set up first
and deployed fully across the table, the veterans hid in the cover, heavy
weapons on the hill, punisher in the middle of the table and infantry
everywhere else.

I set up the wraithlords both on
the left side of my table, so they can target the russ while staying out of the
sight of the heavy weapons team and lascannons. The defence line was set up in
a box with the guardians and fire dragons inside them. The dire avengers hid in
the woods on my left. For some unknown reason I panicked and put the war
walkers into reserve as I thought they would just get destroyed first turn
(outflank). (don’t worry I set the defence line up at the right time before
either of us deployed).

Before the game begins the storm
troopers scout forward.

The Battle

Imperial guard turn 1

As I am hiding behind the defence
line he decides to move towards me apart from the veterans who stay still, the
russ moves towards the wraithlords.

Shooting starts with the veterans
targeting the dire avengers, the sharp shooting of the snipers and Harker
brings down 4 of the aspect warriors. An infantry squad follows suit downing
another 2 of the dire avengers. On the other side of the table an infantry
squad shoots at the fire dragons and another 2 aspect warriors die, luckily the
exarch is fine. The chimera shoots at a wraithlord but just bounces off the
wraithbone shell.

Eldar turn 1

With little in the way of army I
moved the wraithlords forwards towards the russ to get a clean shot.

I have never used a quad gun
before let alone a fire dragon exarch on one, let’s see if it’s any good. He
targets the chimera and all hit, but only 1 penetrates, thank god for tank
hunters, another pen and a glance. No cover save from crackshot and it’s
wrecked, not the best but better than nothing. It takes both wraithlords to
shoot at the russ and get a single glancing hit. The guardians shoot at the
storm troopers and kill 2, while the dire avengers do the same and kill a
single model. Not a great first turn.

Imperial guard turn 2

As a wave the infantry squads
push forwards supported by the russ.

The heavy weapons team take a
shot at the blue wraithlord and take a wound from it. An infantry squad hit it
with a lascannon and strip a second wound from the monster. The russ shoots at
the unharmed wraithlord with its punisher cannon but he sheer toughness of the
beast prevents it from coming to any harm. An infantry squad shoot at the fire
dragons and kill all 3. To finish of the phase the veterans shoot at the
guardians and get many placed shots which all get put on the farseer and he
takes a single wound, and 2 guardians die.

Eldar turn 2

The war walkers appear! On the
right flank. The wraithlords carry on forward. With the quad gun unmanned the
guardians take control of it.

War walkers unleash the pain on
the heavy weapons team and kill all 3 of them. Both wraithlords shoot at the russ
and do nothing at all, all shots bounce off the armour. The dire avengers shoot
at a infantry command squad killing 2. The guardians aim at the infantry squad
on the right killing 5, making the others run.

Imperial guard turn 3

The running squad regroup.
Backing up the russ moves and faces the war walkers. The infantry command on
the hill next to the war walkers turn to face them.

The russ starts the shooting
phase, and deals with the war walkers a lot better than it did with the
wraithlord. 20 shots, 5 damaging results, 2 wrecks and a stunned walker. The
veterans shoot at the guardians again and kill 2 more. The rest of the army
shoots at the wraithlord which is damaged but all the shots fail to do
anything.

Combat phase and the command
squad next to the war walker charge it! The walker fails to stop anyone with
overwatch and gets wrecked with krack grenades.

Eldar turn 3

The wraithlords go their separate
ways this turn as one goes after the russ while the other goes towards an
infantry squad to its right.

A bright lance and missile launcher
to the rear armor finally bring down the russ, exploding it. The second wraithlord
sprays both of its flamers into the infantry squad killing 7 guardsmen who then
run. The dire avengers shoot at the storm troopers killing 2, leaving a melta
gun alive. The guardians target the veterans and kill 3 of the unimportant
veterans.

Imperial guard turn 4

The running guardsmen regroup and
everyone else moves towards the wraithlords with the company command squad
leading the way.

The lone storm trooper uses his
melta gun on the unwounded wraithlord and deal a wound to it. Again the
veterans shoot at the guardians and get a large number of placed shots all of
which go onto the farseer and actually kill him and a guardian, the rest of
them run off the table.

Assault phase is short lived as
the command squad charge the wounded lord but 4 of the guys die to flamer over
watch and then the commander gets a fist to the face and dies.

Eldar turn 4

Wraithsight finally fails me as
the blue wounded lord can’t do anything. The other moves towards the infantry
around him ready to flame them.

Flames appear and 9 guardsmen die
with the last guy running.

Imperial guard turn 5

The army swarms the wraithlord.

A lascannon shot from the
infantry bring down the wounded wraithlord. The veterans manage to destroy the
other with lucky sniper shots. A long range shot from an infantry squad bring
downs the dire avengers to a single model.

Eldar turn 5

The dire avenger runs to the quad
gun and kills a single guardsman.

We roll to see if the game
carries on… if it doesn’t I win on a technicality, if it goes on…

Imperial guard turn 6

I lost the game as even though
the dire avenger goes to ground he dies to the second shot. Damn.

I get tabled.

Post-battle

Well that was a very revealing
battle for the army list, and it doesn’t appear to be good. My army got shot to
bits by a not very shooty army, if it came across a semi shoots marine army it
would have died faster. If I was against tau even faster, shooty orks and im in
trouble. I won’t be using this army in the tournament as I don’t think I will
do very well, while I thought it might be good, in practice is sucks.

Just something I found out later, you can still
look out sir from placed shots, gotta make sure I remember that in the future

1 comment:

Wow. Just wow. Maybe its because I'm an IG player but that was the worst use of a Leman Russ I've seen in some time. He takes a tank just chock full of Str 5 against an army full of Infantry and he decides to fire it at...the monstrous creatures. After you Outflank the War Walkers (which wasn't a terrible idea actually) he then turns its rear armor to an anti-tank Wraithlord so that he gets, what?, three more str 5 shots? I saw the army lists and kinda thought you'd get tabled but I thought he'd do it quicker and his Leman Russ use is a major reason for that.

Onto something more constructive than my complaining...don't sweat the loss. IG is a terrible matchup for you because you're a soft(ish) firepower army. IG can outshoot Eldar at that point level in most cases so IG will beat you at your game 9/10 times. Your Wraithlords are the key to your victory. If I were your opponent I'd be afraid of you placing them front and center, then running them forward. Their guns mean little against me but in melee you'd destroy me badly. Hit lascannon/missile launcher toting squads with the quad gun and war walkers so that the Wraithlords make it, then start punching in tank armor and flaming infantry squads.